Creating the right skills base is a joint responsibility for business and education

The education sector must work more closely with government and business to ensure that students graduate with the IT skills the UK needs to compete in a global market, say experts.

Speaking at a roundtable debate organised by skills certification specialist CompTIA in London last week, Jeremy Beale, head of ebusiness at the CBI, said it is time to make the right decisions about education and IT skills.

'Unless we get it right, there will be decreased investment in the UK and activity will move offshore. We could eventually have economic decline,' he said. 'There is a problem with skill sets and definitions. There are increasingly common discussions that we need standards, so companies can measure themselves and their people against other businesses.'

Beale drew attention to the high technical abilities of individuals in other countries. He says it is time to consider the effects of a changing geographic division of labour.

'The UK economy has to have a first-rate IT and communications sector - it's about what companies are doing online.

But many European countries are facing challenges from countries with lower wage rates and a higher supply of labour,' he said.

'China and India pump out thousands of graduates with IT skills. The education sector has to be sharp about where it focuses - and it should be about the high-end skills.'

Matthew Poyiadgi, regional director of sales and marketing for Europe at CompTIA, says knowledge held by employees is the UK's principal asset. 'Education has started to embrace business, and the worst thing to do would be to try to second-guess what employers are looking for - that's where we have come from, and we'll never survive if we turn back there,' he said.

Jane Lewis, head of training at Cisco, says the networking giant is keen to encourage the right type of skills development.

'Essentially, this involves trying to encourage students that they have to receive lifelong learning, she says. 'It's about missing links: looking at what jobs are out there, and what graduates will be expected to do.'

The experts say education institutions are preparing to work more closely with industry to meet their skills requirements.

And Ian Green, divisional manager of distributive learning at Wigan and Leigh College, says the learning environment in further education has changed dramatically over the past 20 years.

He says education organisations are now more reliant on UK companies. 'We have to be flexible to cater for businesses' needs,' he said. 'Funding isn't endless, and all colleges need alternatives.'

Jean Milne, a former HNC student and now a software developer, says she feared entering the workplace with the wrong type of skills.

'The worst-case scenario would have been to complete my studies and then find out I didn't have the right skills and I was not up to scratch,' she said.